Appeal for reduced sentence by Dubai robbery gang dismissed by court

A court rejected an appeal for a reduced sentence from a gang of raiders who attacked a security guard and stole electrical cables worth Dh250,000 from a warehouse in Dubai.

The four men were each locked up for three years after being convicted of charges of armed robbery, confinement and assault.

They lodged an appeal against the severity of their sentences, which was rejected by Dubai Court of Appeal.

On June 25 last year, one of the offenders approached the security guard to ask if he could sit outside the warehouse to escape the summer heat until his friends arrived. When his three accomplices turned up, the group dragged the Pakistani guard into a toilet and bound him with ropes.

The victim, 27, managed to free himself and alert police.

“I asked him to leave and told him it’s not allowed for strangers to sit in front of the warehouse but he kept stalling,” the guard said. “I told him I can’t accept it, but suddenly his friends showed up. Two of them restrained me and the others beat me up before dragging me to the toilet and tying me up with ropes.”

He managed to untie himself and found that the warehouse doors had been forced and electric cables were gone.

Police arrested the four men the next month.

The Pakistani men, aged between 27 and 37, said during police questioning that they entered the country through Fujairah from Oman.

They told police they worked in Sharjah before deciding to rob the warehouse in Al Quoz.

All four denied the armed robbery charge in Dubai Criminal and Appeal Courts; while three denied physical assault and confinement charges.

They will be deported after serving their terms.

The four were jailed for three years each after their Dh250,000 haul; the appeal court refused to cut their sentences